12 comments

  • Ryan ScottRyan Scott, over 8 years ago

    I really like the UI animations created here and I agree that the Nest app needs improvements, but the emphasis on weather in this prototype doesn't make sense to me. While I understand that the current app displays the weather in the corner, it is definitely not a large point of emphasis. It seems it's only there currently to reinforce to the user that the temperature displayed in the middle of the UI is indeed the indoor temperature of their thermostat and not the outdoor reading. I think adding weather animations front and center confuses the app's purpose of a simulated Nest hardware interface.

    3 points
    • Vince Angeloni, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

      I have to agree. The first thing I thought of was the relevance of snow or sunshine to my indoor climate. To me they are two different interpretations of climate.

      What would be cool instead is to have the background of the app not imitate the outdoor climate, but show a color based on the indoor climate. A soft pastel orange for warm which changes to a soft blue for cool as the temperature changes and vice versa.

      1 point
    • Evan DinsmoreEvan Dinsmore, over 8 years ago

      I've been creating these design challenges for my own use cases, and I tend to check the Nest app when I'm either away, or about to return home, and in most cases what kind of weather there is determines what temperature I'm going to set my Nest. If it's a particularly cold day, I know there's a draft and will need more heat. If it's a particularly sunny day, I know that I'll need more air conditioning.

      That said, I see where you're coming from though and how that could potentially be confusing. That's where user testing would normally come in to check these assumptions. Thanks for the feedback!

      0 points
  • Brian HarperBrian Harper, over 8 years ago

    I love that you jumped directly into Xcode to prototype this. Inspiring to know that it's possible.

    2 points
  • Giulio MichelonGiulio Michelon, over 8 years ago

    Finally a redesign that is not pointless. Kudos.

    2 points
  • Brian Lovin, over 8 years ago

    Huge fan of this series! Well done Evan :)

    1 point
  • David Barsky, over 8 years ago

    Do you mind putting up the source on GitHub? I'm curious to see how you implemented a couple things.

    1 point
    • Evan DinsmoreEvan Dinsmore, over 8 years ago

      Which part are you curious about? I can't distribute the video clip used for the weather which means anything I share won't be the same experience as I had designed. I can gladly share code snippets though.

      0 points
      • David Barsky, over 8 years ago

        I was hoping the snow wasn't a video clip, and it was rather some very impressive SceneKit particle system.

        But if it's a video, it's fine. thanks though!

        0 points
        • Evan DinsmoreEvan Dinsmore, over 8 years ago

          If I had the motion graphics knowledge, it would have been. Possible to make it much higher resolution/more accurate than a video clip. But alas, I only know so much haha.

          0 points
  • Taron GhazaryanTaron Ghazaryan, over 8 years ago

    I like it a lot. One thing I don't understand is where you land when you open the app. There's a back button to locations, but that screen isn't shown anywhere. Anyhow, much better than the current nest app.

    1 point
    • Evan DinsmoreEvan Dinsmore, over 8 years ago

      Just like the existing Nest app, you'd land on the thermostat screen, since that's what you're probably going to be using. If there are multiple thermostats or locations, ideally the app would be smart enough to know which one you adjust more often, or which you adjusted last, to drop you there. I touched on the locations screen briefly, I didn't have time to mock up an additional screen, and for most people with a single home, they're likely not to use the functionality of adding multiple locations.

      Either way, I imagined the location screen would be similar to that of Apple's weather app, with location names, maybe using the background weather image, and a thumbnail (or a couple of thumbnails, maybe scrollable? Not sure, never mocked it up!) showing the thermostat temperature(s). The nice thing about these challenges is that I'm not restricted to thinking about the entire app, I can choose a few screens to focus my efforts and play with new concepts. This is an example where the full structure of the app isn't 100% fleshed out.

      0 points